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Miesha Tate’s standing as one in every of girls’s MMA’s most revered figures is ready in stone – however after rising from a five-year hiatus this previous summer season, her pursuit of revenge in opposition to double-champ Amanda Nunes will probably finish in tears.
Within the 2006 movie ‘Rocky Balboa’, the outdated and decrepit titular character is teased out of retirement for one final struggle in opposition to the fictional heavyweight champion Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon – however even the pen of Sylvester Stallone could not fairly conjure a state of affairs the place former glories might believably be recaptured in such an enviornment, with Antonio Tarver’s Dixon finally claiming victory in opposition to Stallone’s relic character, however not with out some bother alongside the way in which.
Miesha Tate, by comparability, is neither outdated nor a relic, however the former UFC girls’s bantamweight champion has once more proved one of many struggle sport’s most reliable truisms, in addition to fodder for numerous Hollywood flicks: fight sports activities retirements are sometimes a short lived scenario, and comebacks hardly ever obtain the specified end result.
‘Cupcake’, as she is delightfully recognized, ended her personal five-year stint on the sidelines of her sport in July when she beat up the 44-year-old Marion Reneau to say what was her first win within the cage since she dethroned Holly Holm all the way in which again in March of 2016.
Tate’s title reign was a short one as she shortly bumped into Amanda Nunes in her subsequent outing. Tate, nor any of us, knew on the time that the Brazilian ‘Lioness’ would quickly be regarded not simply as the very best fighter within the division, however the very best feminine fighter ever. Interval.
That lesson has since been bolstered by Nunes throughout Tate’s absence from the game, and in two separate weight classes. The likes of Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko and most just lately Megan Anderson have all tried and failed of their bids for the throne.
And none of them bought significantly shut.
However Tate, the fighter strangled into submission by Nunes in simply over 3 minutes 5 years in the past, said to the media this week forward of her second comeback struggle this weekend in opposition to Ketlen Vieira that she has affixed a goal squarely to the champion’s again.
“It might take another struggle nevertheless it may be as a result of the way in which the remainder of the division is correct now and the way in which that Amanda has dominated it since I left, additionally makes it a bit completely different in that I’m form of recent blood,” Tate mentioned.
“So I wish to be the one to say [to Amanda Nunes] your largest competitors is correct right here at 135. Combat me.”
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On one hand, Tate definitely can’t be blamed for chasing the champ. Gold has a really specific attract, significantly when it comes alongside the title of being the very best on the earth at one thing. However each fighter goals of being a world champion – in any other case what precisely is the purpose of taking punches to the top for a residing?
To her credit score, Tate is aware of precisely what this seems like when she squeezed the championship out of Holly Holm, Ronda Rousey’s conqueror some months earlier than, with a late rear-naked choke after being dominated on the ft by the previous professional boxer for a lot of the competition.
However she additionally is aware of what it’s wish to lose the championship – and lose to Amanda Nunes particularly.
“You know the way this enterprise works,” Tate said. “I can’t even use the phrase deserve as a result of that doesn’t even make any sense once we use the phrase deserve in our sport. It’s not even a lot about that. I do know I’ve put within the work for lots of years. I’m a former champion. I completed a lady who had by no means been completed [Reneau].
“I’m going to go on the market November 20, I’m going to shock the world once more and I’m going to make a case. If the UFC likes my case, if the glove suits, if the storyline rides, then I’ll be there.“
The storyline does, as she says, experience. There’s something concerning the former champion returning to battle in pursuit of revenge in opposition to a dominant titleholder. And it would simply occur. There isn’t a one left for Nunes to struggle, provided that she has eviscerated all challengers throughout two weight divisions for a number of years now.
A win this weekend in opposition to Vieira, after which doubtlessly one other in opposition to a fighter among the many prime five-ranked bantamweights, will probably set it up, as if the narrative had been dreamed up on the silver display.
However as Stallone’s Rocky mentioned as he readied himself for his personal emergence from retirement, “It is not about how exhausting you hit. It is about how exhausting you may get hit and maintain shifting ahead“.
Amanda Nunes will definitely sustain her finish of the discount, however might Miesha Tate?
By John Balfe
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